Conventionally, when performing maintenance on mobile objects including, for example, cars, motorcycles, and ships, a control device, for example, an ECU (Electronic Control Unit) which is provided in the mobile objects acquires data indicating the conditions of various sensors, various actuators, and so forth which are provided at various positions in the mobile objects to control the mobile objects, and performs failure diagnosis. In addition, in order to operate the sensors and the actuators normally, a new control program and new data is set in the control device based on the results of the diagnosis. When data is set in a control device for a mobile object or when data is acquired from the control device in this manner, in order to manipulate a terminal which is provided with an interface with the control device, an engineer goes to a location at which the mobile object and the terminal are located, and then conducts operations. Alternatively, if the engineer cannot go to the location, the engineer makes a worker on the spot manipulate the terminal while instructing the worker via a telephone and so forth.
Furthermore, a device which performs maintenance on mobile objects in this manner is known and is disclosed, for example, in Japanese Examined Patent Application, Second Publication No. Hei 7-15427. This device transmits data to and receives data from an electronic control device and performs failure diagnosis of actuators provided at various positions of a car, by using a failure diagnosis device which is connected to the electronic control device of the car or by using an expert computer which is connected to the failure diagnosis device. The expert computer is further connected to a host computer via a telephone line, receives programs and data for failure diagnosis of a maker level which are supplied from the host computer, and builds a database in the host computer based on the data which has been acquired from the electronic control device.
By doing so, it is not only possible to readily perform failure diagnosis using the failure diagnosis device but it is also possible to perform advanced failure diagnosis using the expert computer which is supplied with the program and the data for failure diagnosis of a maker level from the host computer when the need arises.
The aforementioned conventional devices can easily perform maintenance on a mobile object by transmitting and receiving data to and from a control device which is provided in the mobile object using a failure diagnosis device; however, an engineer who performs maintenance using the failure diagnosis device must go to a location at which the mobile object and the failure diagnosis device are located or a location at which the expert computer is located in order to manipulate the failure diagnosis device or the expert computer, thereby causing a problem of deteriorating the working efficiency. There is also a problem of the cost of the travel of the engineer.
Moreover, when the engineer does not go to the location, it is necessary to make the worker on the spot perform the work for the engineer in accordance with instructions from the engineer, so that it requires a great deal of labor to exactly instruct the worker on the contents of the work.
Furthermore, since it is not possible to simultaneously monitor the conditions of a plurality of mobile objects if it is necessary to perform maintenance on the mobile objects, there is a problem in that it is impossible to deal with situations for which immediate measures must be taken.